SHARE YOUR WORD FOR 2016
In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered.
Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word – this word or phrase would be something on which to ponder for many days, weeks, months, sometimes a whole lifetime. This practice is connected to lectio divina, where we approach the sacred texts with the same request – “give me a word” we ask – something to nourish me, challenge me, a word I can wrestle with and grow into. The word which chooses us has the potential to transform us.
What is your word for the year ahead? A word which contains within it a seed of invitation to cross a new threshold in your life?
Share your word in the comments section below by January 6, 2016 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below).
A FREE 12-DAY ONLINE MINI-RETREAT TO HELP YOUR WORD CHOOSE YOU. . .
As in past years, I am offering all Abbey newsletter subscribers a gift: a free 12-day online mini-retreat with a suggested practice for each day to help your word choose you and to deepen into your word once it has found you. Even if you participated last year, you are more than welcome to register again.
Subscribe to our email newsletter and you will receive a link to start your mini-retreat today. Your information will never be shared or sold. (If you are already subscribed to the newsletter, look for the link in today’s email).
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ON JANUARY 6TH!
We are delighted to offer some wonderful gifts from the Abbey:
- One signed copy each of Soul of a Pilgrim, Eyes of the Heart, The Artist’s Rule, and Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire.
- One space in Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
- 4 people will win their choice of self-study online classes from the following: Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert: A Self-Study Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen, Soul of a Pilgrim: An Online Art Retreat, Seasons of the Soul, Lectio Divina: The Sacred Art of Reading the World, or Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Contemplative Practice.
So please share your word (and it would be wonderful to include a sentence about what it means for you) with us below.
Subscribe to the Abbey newsletter to receive ongoing inspiration in your in-box. Share the love with others and invite them to participate. Then stay tuned – on January 6th we will announce the prize winners!
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712 Responses
Inspired
To Be Inspired- In Spirit, to invoke the In Dwelling. My word found me in an early morning wakeful sleep January 1st, of all days. A call for active listening and allowing Flow. A call to continue centering prayer and owning my mystic creative heart, letting go of falsehoods and growing my Authentic Self in the world.
Karin Leon
Seeing: … and discovering the sacred in all ways and all days, in the ordinary and the extraordinary. How could a new way of seeing, or perhaps a deeper way of seeing, transform my heart and my life, and influence my choices and actions each day …
My word is enough.
God is enough.
I am enough.
This moment is enough.
You are enough.
Grace now.
Hospitality: I have kept my home a private sanctuary all of my life and now I want to open it to others and to love on them as the Lord loves on me.
My word….. bread. Softly, while in silent prayer this morning, the image of the bread broken at a communion service I attended Saturday appeared in my mind. The bread was a circle of real, hearty bread – not a wafer. It had the cross imprinted on the top. I was part of a small group, standing shoulder-to-shoulder around the altar and could see the crumbs fall as the priest said, “…’Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.'” We passed the plate of bread around the circle, feeding each other the bread, saying “The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven.”
I had been attending a retreat Saturday titled: “Beloved Community: Dismantling Racism”. The bread is the remembrance of Christ in me; Christ in my Beloved Community.
My word is accept. I had lots of loss last year and have much uncertainty about what life will be like this year. I believe the word that chose me was accept and with that rest. I’m on Day 11: Seek Out A Spiritual Teacher – and would like to immerse myself in a writer who can speak to acceptance. Any suggestions?
My word: restore
My word for 2016 is UNFOLD. Unfold, for me, means allowing my life to reflect, reveal, and represent the infinite beauty, love, abundance, creativity, joy, peace, wisdom, and good of God in each and every now moment.
Awakening
My word finally came this morning as I was enjoying time alone, a wandering morning, moving with the flow not encumbered by schedule.
Even in retirement finding this time is truly a gift. I have followed the 12 day retreat seriously, although intermittently,
due to an almost mystical opportunity for service for family.
Giving without expectation, with love and being loved, a time of changing perceptions of what we thought about our lives and our relationships,
discovering this beautiful connection that has always been there… just being and letting the experience unfold.
Today the word came, as a gentle presence, a knowing,
containing within it the seed of invitation as I cross a new threshold in my life.
Awakening.